


22:58 (and thirty-three seconds)

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Legion Mate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 13:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15909210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: To stop the Deletors from bringing Brandt back from its ashes, Chrono seals himself in the safest prison he knows.





	22:58 (and thirty-three seconds)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Antartique](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antartique/gifts).



> So Anta was like "legion mate but with ibukuro" and I was like "okay but Chrono would handle things differently than Aichi" and well here we are.
> 
> Tl;dr Oksizz came back to possess Ibuki AGAIN to use him for a little "bring Brandt back" stunt and Chrono foiled that by drawing him inside himself instead with some help from Chronojet.

“Sorry for making you guys do this.”  
He smiles, because what else is he gonna do at this point? He's made his choice. There's a whole world he has to protect, two worlds, even, and someone he refuses to let come to harm again.  
He smiles because he's grateful. He smiles because he loves them. He smiles because giving in to despair is the very thing he wants to give people a way out of.  
Even if it hurts, he refuses to give up. Hope is what he came to save.  
In front of him, Shion sighs, shaking his head.  
“Stop being so painfully noble. Even when we met…”  
Chrono chuckles, and finds that it's almost through tears.  
“Try not to climb any walls while I'm not there to save you, yeah?”  
Tokoha snorts.  
“You're both idiots,” she tells them, and before Chrono can find words to object, she's wrapped him in a hug.   
A breath, a beat, and then Shion joins her, burying him in a pile of friends that he'd give his life for, if he wasn't already kinda doing that.  
He lets himself breathe, and rests his head on Tokoha's shoulder. The moment seems to stretch forever; then again, here, it doesn't matter. What little flow remains in this space, brought by their presence, will soon disappear.  
“To think we'd finally get to see Cray, and it's for _this_ ,” Tokoha mumbles.  
“… I know,” Chrono sighs. “But this way there'll actually be something left to see.”  
“Are they really sure it's secure?” Shion asks.   
“As long as you keep a good eye on the seal on your side, it should be.”  
“Are you really sure about Ibuki?” Tokoha says, quietly.  
He closes his eyes, briefly. Even through his iron defenses, the presence inside him whispers.  
You can't save him. You'll only destroy him. Even if you pulled me out, he'll never be free of me. He'll never be free of _you_. You're already too late.  
His heart twists. But if anything, his resolve only strengthens. He can't let that malice eat away at his thoughts. It's already all too aware what his weaknesses are.  
“… I don't have a choice,” he says quietly.  
“You could make him forget like everyone el—”  
“ _No!_ ”  
Shion trails off half-sentence at his outburst. Chrono bites his lip, takes a breath to calm himself.  
“No,” he says again, more evenly. “That's the one thing I can't do. It'd destroy him.”  
So eager to set yourself apart from me, the presence whispers. But you'll hurt him even more.  
And letting him run free is a risk, he knows. If there's anyone in this world who could find him against all odds, who could somehow find a way to reverse the bindings of time, it's Kouji Ibuki. At the cost of his life, if he had to.  
But there are things even Chrono can't make himself accept. And the destruction and betrayal of the very person for whom he found the resolve to go through with this is foremost in that list.  
He didn't tear him from the Deletors' control only to put him through the same kind of violation again.  
“… I can't manipulate his memories,” Chrono says. “I can't.”  
“… if you're sure.”  
None of them say what they all know. That if Chrono tasked him with protecting the seal himself, he would probably dedicate his entire being to it.  
But that's not what he wants.  
He wants him to be free. Against odds, he wants to believe that one day, Ibuki could look at the sky and feel like his life is worth living.  
He wants to believe in hope, for those who have been hurt.  
That he's asking his friends to take that burden is the one selfishness he's allowed himself, because they offered to.  
Really, where would he be without them.  
“… just make sure you deliver my message, okay?”  
It'll hurt no matter what he does. But he can at least give him a goal, a mission. Something to devote himself to that will help him and others, in the long run, hopefully.  
 _Protect this world for me._  
“I promise,” Shion says.  
“And if he comes looking for you anyway?”  
“… I trust you two to be strong enough to stop him.”  
Silently, they nod.  
“We'll get the letter to him as soon as we've made sure the seal's stable on our side,” Tokoha says, gently.  
“… thank you.”  
It hurts to let them go. But there's a world he has to protect.  
Slowly, he disentangles himself from their arms. And he's smiling again.  
To their credit, neither of them asks him whether he's really sure he wants to do this. They know him better than that, and know better than to make it harder by asking.  
“… ready?” he asks them.  
For a moment, they stay silent. And then Tokoha nods.  
“Let's go.”

As they walk down the corridor that links the time prison to Earth, their footsteps disappearing as they cross the gradual portal, Chrono walks back to the center of the glyph, the giant ring of Time that will soon trap him in its hold. A single second for a prison, suspended, stretched across all of time—or unless the time comes for the seal to be broken. A stillness no corruption can progress in or overcome.  
As he sits on the ironically throne-like seat, a figure emerges from the darkness.  
Chronojet Dragon doesn't need any words. This is something that they understand each other's feelings on all too well. He nods, and Chrono nods back, and around him the machinery starts to hum.  
“… take care of Dran too,” Chrono calls out.  
Chronojet Dragon nods.  
“… do not lose hope,” he says, as Chrono's world prepares to go still. “There may yet be a way to cleanse Brandt. Messiah will not abandon you.”  
Through the tear that finally falls, then freezes, caught in time that no longer flows, Chrono smiles.


End file.
